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Opening Day Expectations for the Dodgers Are At A Decades-Long High. But Why?

Before answering the question of this admittedly loaded subject title, it’s worth saying that the Dodgers certainly appear to be one of the best teams in baseball, as has been the case for nearly four years. Corey Seager will probably get even better, Clayton Kershaw is still the best, and after a brief offseason scare that they might land somewhere else, underappreciated Kenley Jansen and Justin Turner are back in LA for 2017, and probably beyond that.

The rest of the team looks pretty good, as well. At least for the spring, Chase Utley seems to have discovered the fountain of youth. Even if not, he won’t be the primary second baseman, anyway- Logan Forsythe, the only major acquisition for this year’s Major League roster, also had a great spring. The outfield has the now-familiar core, anchored by centerfielder Joc Pederson. The pitching is a bit of a question mark- we’ll get to that in a second- but Rick Honeycutt and company always seem to get the best out of them.

Arguably, the best thing the Dodgers seem to have going for them is the same thing they’ve had going for quite a while now- the rest of the NL West. Do you even remember the last time someone besides the Dodgers or Giants won the NL West? (Actually, the Diamondbacks did in 2011, but that was the only time in the past 9 seasons. Also, for the current Diamondbacks, 2011 might as well have been 1911.) That trend is likely to continue for 2017. So when the regular season competition is almost exclusively between two teams, winning the division at worst should be like a coin flip for the Dodgers.

However…

None of that justifies the overwhelmingly and exceptionally high marks the Dodgers are getting for 2017, with Opening Day just hours away. The talented Grant Bisbee, an SB Nation blogger for McCovey Chronicles, refers to the Dodgers as “the class of baseball”. This isn’t TOO surprising, as Bisbee’s loyalties towards the SABR ideology is about as strong as his loyalty to the Giants. However, when seeing how Bill Plaschke- household curmudgeon and perennial whipping boy for The New School- has also gotten onboard, it’s clear that something is amiss. ESPN’s baseball department, such as it still is, is not quite as overly optimistic on the Dodgers, with The Boys In Blue “only” the third favorite pick for champions, right behind the 2016 participants. Still, the team receives very high marks all around, from people who do this sort thing for a living. Which leads us back to the original question, “Why now?”

Before examining 2017 further, consider what happened at the end of 2016. This is a team that made it past the Nationals by the skin of their teeth in the NLDS, and while they were competitive against the Cubs in the next round, there is no question who the better team was. What has happened since, to create this surge in optimism? Other than Logan Forsythe, the most significant signing has been Sergio Romo. While Dodger fans can be forgiven for abandoning their hostility towards the flamboyant 3x World Champion for San Francisco- being a sports fan these days requires short memories about these sorts of things- there should be no forgetting of Romo’s contribution towards the Giants collapse last year. Don’t let that 2.64 ERA fool you- part of the reason the Dodgers incredible, Kershless late-season comeback was a success, was because of the failures of the Giants bullpen. Romo was every bit a part of that failure. Does the 34 year old have enough left to turn it around? Possibly- if he even stays healthy enough. But this can’t justify the reasoning that the Dodgers have gotten that much closer to the Cubs, or perhaps even the Nationals.

And speaking of bullpens, this seems to be a compelling reason- for some, anyway- as to why the Dodgers will repeat, perhaps even surpass, their success of last season. But keep in mind that until the 2016 squad came along, there was no precedent- NONE- for a bullpen that was used so heavily, to have an even winning record, let alone one that ended up in the postseason. In fact, there has never been a bullpen that was used so heavily period- probably the main reason why Dave Roberts deservedly won NL Manager of the Year. For the 2017 Dodgers to live up to their reputation, though, they will have to get some length out of their starters, as opposed to repeating the unprecedented late season success of last season’s bullpen. That, above all else, is going to be the key to whether or not the Dodgers even make it to October, let alone how far they make it into October.

And just how likely is it that this team WON’T overuse their bullpen this season? One of the more curious aspects of the Friedman/Zaidi era is the much rosier (or should we say blue colored) interpretation of the facts, versus the glass-is-half empty recollection of the Colletti era. What used to be seen as question marks and logjams are now seen as “depth”. Sure, the Dodgers have lots of starting pitchers to choose from, but how many of them, not named Clayton Kershaw, can be relied upon? Rich Hill and Kenta Maeda, the guys who couldn’t be asked to go more than 5 innings per game in the postseason? Brandon McCarthy and Hyun Jin-Ryu, with their injury histories? The promising Julio Urias, who won’t even start at the Major League level this year?

And once they get to the bullpen, what can the team expect at that point? Middle relief is fickle, in general, so how about we just skip to the 9th, and talk about Kenley Jansen. Although arguably the most dominant closer in Dodger history- at least in terms of longevity- we still don’t know the effects of last October on him. Kershaw got most of the accolades for his surprise save against the Nationals, but it was Jansen who was asked to save the team- literally and metaphorically- time and time again, including the game that Kershaw closed out. Whether that can continue, given his past usage, remains to be seen.

Back To The Brightside…

In just a few hours, it will be Time For Dodger Baseball once again. There is too much past history and too much future promise to dwell on the questions and concerns brought up in this blog. It’s just that with glowing reviews this offseason, it was at least worth CONSIDERING the kinds of things that will pop up eventually, especially seeing how few bloggers, journalists, and baseball analysts HAVE looked at the downside. But during the spring, Justin Turner hit like Ted Williams, Clayton Kershaw pitched like Clayton Kershaw, and everyone else should be just about ready for the season now. Who knows- maybe Yasiel Puig can remind us why we were so excited about him a few years back. Maybe. We’ll see.